US – Friday, July 30

Helping the Hub grow more green

 Jessica Lerner recalls how a couple of years ago, her friends began constantly asking her for advice on making environmentally-friendly choices in their lives. Calls that ranged from finding recycled furniture to how to be more energy efficient.

Seeing there was a market for her knowledge (she studied environmental studies at Brown University) to create what she calls “sustainable living,” Lerner started her own business, Green on the Inside. Now, Lerner consults homeowners, businesses and non-profits on ways to go green. She said she’s constantly reading and researching to keep up with the latest green trends, and she’ll even send clients to green architects or other specialists if they’re in need of a big project.

There is passion in her voice when she talks about environmental awareness. As a girl growing up in New York, she would always try to get people to recycle, and later when she spent summers on Martha’s Vineyard, her appreciation for conserving nature blossomed.  

“If I was going to be in this field, I didn’t want to just sit there and do a job and not know where my work was going,” said Lerner, 32, who lives in Brookline. “I wanted to feel like every day I saw something happening in people, their consciousness shifting or they care more.”

Lerner she said she’s amazed how much the idea of going green has gone from a movement to an industry in the last year, something she didn’t expect to happen that quickly. But now that it’s here, people are interested in making all kinds of lifestyle changes, and Lerner said many just don’t have the time to research them. There’s where she comes in.

“It’s inspiring. It’s exciting. But it’s overwhelming because there’s that much more pressure to make sure that everything I’m doing, I’m on top of it,” she said.